BAND WATCH - Red Cortez (formerly The Weather Underground)

"Recalls a post-punk Kings of Leon, or the Walkmen soaked in Southern Comfort" - LA Times

Red Cortez - World At Rest {MP3}

Red Cortez - All The Difference {MP3}

After a successful summer tour that included multiple dates with Matt Costa, Delta Spirit, and Constantines, plus an appearance at Bonnaroo, The Weather Underground returned to their native Los Angeles and holed themselves up to focus on writing new material.

The ensuing months were an extremely prolific period for the band, even as some important transitions were simultaneously occurring for the quartet.

Guitarist Shoichi Bagley decided to leave the band amicably for pursuits outside music and Calvin J. Love, a native of Edmonton, Canada, replaced Bagley on lead guitar. Now with a new lineup and an exciting batch of new songs, The Weather Underground has changed their name to Red Cortez.

As frontman Harley Prechtel-Cortez explains it, “we decided we need to keep the focus on the music and didn’t want to share our identity with anyone or anything else.”

Red Cortez is the continued evolution of the Weather Underground, a band renowned across California for thrilling audiences with their own fresh take on American rock and roll. Now, just as they demonstrated on the three EPs released by The Weather Underground in 2007 and 2008, Red Cortez has delivered powerful songs drawn from the most classic of rock, soul, punk, and blues influences.

Red Cortez’ two brand new tracks, recorded with Love on guitar, are now streaming at www.redcortez.com and the band’s myspace page, www.myspace.com/redcortezband. “All The Difference” begins with a repeating piano riff before erupting into an anthemic, arena scorcher while “World At Rest” is a jerky, Clash-style punk rocker.

Red Cortez will make their public live debut on November 11 at the premiere of Indie 103.1’s Check One Twosdays at the Echoplex in Los Angeles, sharing a bill with Earlimart and Afternoons.

In addition, Dayrotter will release on November 5 the session The Weather Underground recorded over the summer. Red Cortez will continue to play the songs recorded under the Weather Underground moniker, and this session available for download November 5 at www.daytrotter.com features four of these celebrated songs from the band’s repertoire.

Red Cortez will be announcing more tour dates in the coming days.

Red Cortez Tour Dates:

November 11- Echoplex, Indie 1031 Check One Twosdays (w/Earlimart and Afternoons)

www.redcortez.com